In recent years, two distinct but related questions have been raised with respect to value-added taxes (VATs). Concern has been expressed over whether it is desirable or even possible for both national and subnational governments in federal countries such as India, Argentina, and Russia to...

The treatment of financial services remains the last unconquered frontier in the design of a value-added tax (VAT)/goods and services tax (GST). Like the vast majority of its VAT/GST peers, Canada exempts most financial services under the GST. The author reviews the legal landscape surrounding...

Despite its complexity and the harsh reception the Canadian Goods and Services Tax (GST/HST) was greeted with at its inception in the early 1990s, the story emerging from Canada's value-added tax (VAT) experience is mostly a happy one. Indeed, a majority of the provinces will soon have replaced...

Canadian experience shows that a standard invoice-credit destination-based value added tax (VAT) can be successfully imposed at the subnational level of government. In fact, two different varieties of subnational VATs – the QST and the HST -- exist in Canada. The Quebec Sales Tax (QST) is...

For decades, the conventional view was that one could not impose a standard invoice-credit destination-based value added tax (VAT) at the subnational level of government. Canada's almost two decades of experience with just such a VAT demonstrates conclusively that this view is incorrect. Not...